cover image What Child Is This? An Ellie Kent Mystery

What Child Is This? An Ellie Kent Mystery

Alice K. Boatwright. Cozy Cat, $14.95 trade paper (258p) ISBN 978-1-946063-40-3

Set in the village of Little Beecham, England, Boatwright’s appealing sequel to Under an English Heaven finds amateur sleuth Ellie Kent, an American expat, still in some disbelief that she now lives in an 18th-century Georgian house with her new husband, the town vicar, Graham Kent. When the police make little effort to find missing 20-year-old Anthea Davies, a student at Oxford, her parents turn to Ellie for help in locating her. Meanwhile, during a nativity service on Christmas Eve, Ellie discovers that a real baby has been left in the crib in the church’s manger. Ellie and Graham drive the infant to the hospital, where the maternal Ellie soon becomes a regular visitor to the abandoned child now known as Rosie. Ellie’s search for Anthea eventually connects to the mystery of Rosie’s parentage. Boatwright vividly conjures the warmth of the snowy, candlelit holiday through her descriptions of English Christmas rituals and community gatherings, which also serve to provide a gratifying structure to the story. Anglicans and Anglophiles will find a lot to like. [em](BookLife) [/em]